Review of Driving Miss Daisy (2015) by Kat V — 13 Sep 2012

People know how good this movie is even without ever seeing it, so I won't gush too much about the obvious.

Firstly, Freeman. I'm so used to seeing him in roles where he is a wise, all-knowing, magnanimous, eloquent and well-tempered man... I was SO impressed to see him completely transform into this bashful, uneducated, simple, but lovely and kind man. Even his speech and tone of voice was so different to what it usually is, as was his laugh. His stance and gait was another thing I noticed. The movie spans over 20-30 years, and his movements and walk mirrored that passing time.

As for Jessica Tandy... initially, I wasn't too impressed. Mostly because I was too focused on Freeman's acting. I was about 70% into the movie when I remembered that she'd won an oscar for best actress in this film, and I was thinking, "why? She's really not that impressive. Just a stubborn old woman with outdated ways of thinking...that's simple enough." Until I realized, a short while later, that this was Jessica Tandy and NOT actually a stubborn on woman from the south born in the late 1800s! That was sort of a small lightbulb moment for me... she was so convincing, that I never even saw it as an acting performance. I saw Morgan Freeman and Dan Aykroyd acting very convincingly with this old Miss Daisy....completely missed the fact that she wasn't ACTUALLY Miss Daisy. Then I thought... Wow... well-deserved. And I was fixed on her performance right up until Hoke was feeding her her pie at the nursing home..... WOW.

It also goes without saying... the chemistry between Hoke and Miss Daisy? So damn endearing. Miss Daisy's fits and Hoke's back-talk... I just loved it.